In order to ensure that Kenyans pay their taxes, the administration of President William Ruto has detailed its proposal to monitor mobile money transactions.
In a statement, the government said that in response to a draft policy allowing Ruto’s administration to track mobile money transactions, it would primarily concentrate on telecommunications firms.
The government committed to setting up its systems to monitor transactions on the telecommunication platforms in order to reach the Ksh3 trillion revenue target set by Ruto for the upcoming fiscal year.
They (telecommunications providers) will be forced to remit their revenue on a daily basis based on the information acquired.
To obtain real-time data on transactions, the government aims to bring mobile money systems within the purview of telecoms under the proposed new plan.
The telecommunications firms’ networks would enable them to collect pertinent data, including on specific financial activities.
However, as stated in the draft 2023 Budget Policy Statement, it won’t violate people’s privacy in the process.
“We don’t want to rely on the data the carriers have provided. So that the deduction can be made every day, we wish to enter and see for ourselves.
The government representative said, “We will also utilize this technology to monitor the people on the telcos to calculate what taxes they will contribute depending on their transactions.”
The government defended the installation of new, sophisticated systems in telcos by revealing that they had been tried out in some other industries and had improved tax collection by 50%. Additionally, the new technology closed income collection gaps.
The new system is also credited with helping the government cut back on its borrowing binge.
